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Thursday, March 10, 2016

"Obama said. 'I want a serious, effective Republican Party, in part to challenge some of the blind spots and dogmas in the Democratic Party.'"

...................................................................................................................................................................COMMENTS:* The ascendancy of Trump is symptomatic of the disenchantment, distrust and disgust of the average American with politics as usual. Trump would not even be on the radar screen IF "our" leaders DID THEIR JOB and acted in the best interests of the CITIZENS. Rich people can have their mansions and yachts...that's fine. BUT, when they start trying to buy politicians and form their own private government, THEN THAT is a huge problem. The average citizen feels left out, ignored and abandoned as our "democracy" has devolved into a plutocracy. SCOTUS has ruled that corporations are people (!) and that MONEY is free speech, which means that unless you have money, you have NO SAY in our government. Then, the establishment politicians are so OUT OF TOUCH that they seem genuinely baffled when voters reach out for an alternative, which Trump represents.* This coming election is like junior high school. The person who is most popular wins. His/Her ideas for the future, international and domestic policies and the economy mean nothing. Americans are upset with democrats and republicans alike. A few years ago, the democratic party left me. Now, the republicans have left me. I can now be best described as a true independent (not a conservative democrat or a liberal republican). My prayer for the future is a president who puts his political affilation away and works for the best interests of the American people.* Let's assume what the republicans are saying is true: that Obama has been an ineffectual and incompetent president for TWO TERMS. So, it stands to reason to ask the one important question: WHY IN THE HELL DIDN'T THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT FOR THE PAST 7 YEARS?! The answer is real simple: They couldn't. The Republican party had been in a downward spiral even BEFORE Obama was elected to the Senate in 2005. By the time Obama became president, the Republican Party had become an incontinent toothless flea-bitten mangy old dog that slept all day and only woke up once in a while to check its dish for food. The fact that Obama won the presidency in 2008 proved that the once-proud Republican party was already circling the drain. Trump's rising popularity among the poorly educated and angry older white voters is a strong indicator that the GOP's time is near its end - they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel to get votes through the hate and fear that Trump has been generating among this particular demographic. Fortunately, there aren't enough voters in this group to put Trump in the White House.
...................................................................................................................................................................Obama says don’t blame him for Trump, GOP ‘crackup’
By Olivier Knox, March 10, 2016

President Obama on Thursday flatly rejected accusations that he is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump and the Republican primary “crackup,” saying the GOP has only itself to blame for the tinsel-haired showman’s stunning success.“I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they’re selecting for their party is novel,” Obama told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“What I’m not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crackup that’s been taking place is a consequence of actions that I’ve taken,” the president said.

Trump’s rise to odds-on favorite in the race for the Republican presidential nomination has shocked the political establishment and pundits. Some conservative figures have started to blame Obama for the brash New Yorker’s unexpected political triumphs in the early phase of the 2016 campaign.

Obama, standing next to Trudeau in the White House Rose Garden, acknowledged having “heard this argument a number of times” but charged that Trump flared up out of anger fueled by Republican leaders and conservative media.

“The Republican political elites and many of the information outlets — social media, news outlets, talk radio, television stations — have been feeding the Republican base, for the last seven years, a notion that everything I do is to be opposed; that cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal; that maximalist, absolutist positions on issues are politically advantageous; that there is a them-out-there and an us — and ‘them’ are the folks who are causing whatever problems you’re experiencing,” Obama said.

“What you’re seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts, over a course of time, creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive,” Obama said. “He’s just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a half years.”

A few years ago, Trump became the standard-bearer for the racism-tinged “birther” movement, whose followers profess to believe that the nation’s first black president was born in Kenya rather than his actual birthplace of Hawaii and is thus not eligible for the office he was twice elected to. Obama eventually released his long-form birth certificate.

“I don’t think that I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example,” he added. “I don’t remember saying, ‘Hey, why don’t you ask me about that? Why don’t you question whether I’m American or whether I’m loyal or whether I have America’s best interests at heart?’”

Obama said Trump’s views on issues like immigration are “not very different” from those of some of his rivals for the GOP nomination, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. “Mr. Trump might just be more provocative in terms of how he says it, but the actual positions aren’t that different,” the president said.

Obama, who has previously predicted that Trump will not win the White House, said it was time for “thoughtful conservatives” to fight for the soul of their party.

“I think it is very important for them to reflect on what it is about the politics they’ve engaged in that allows the circus we’ve been seeing to transpire and to do some introspection,” Obama said. “I want a serious, effective Republican Party, in part to challenge some of the blind spots and dogmas in the Democratic Party.”

Trudeau, asked to weigh in on the 2016 race and what impact a Trump victory might have on U.S.-Canada relations, sidestepped the question.“I have tremendous confidence in the American people and look forward to working with whomever they choose to send to this White House later this year,” he said.
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